Skip to main content

Uruguay plans to buy hundreds of electric buses from Chinese company

José Mujica, President of Uruguay, BYD, CTS and Buquebus officials have signed a contract to begin bringing electric buses into Uruguay. The BYD GreenCity buses that CTS and Buquebus are purchasing are able to run 250 km (155 miles) on a single charge in urban conditions, with an energy consumption of less than 130 kWh per 100 km. The core technology of the BYD electric buses is the company’s self-developed Iron-Phosphate battery technology boasting the highest safety, longest service life and most environm
July 20, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
José Mujica, President of Uruguay, 5445 BYD, CTS and Buquebus officials have signed a contract to begin bringing electric buses into Uruguay.

The BYD GreenCity buses that CTS and Buquebus are purchasing are able to run 250 km (155 miles) on a single charge in urban conditions, with an energy consumption of less than 130 kWh per 100 km. The core technology of the BYD electric buses is the company’s self-developed Iron-Phosphate battery technology boasting the highest safety, longest service life and most environmentally-friendly rechargeable chemistry. The Chinese-made BYD buses have been in service in four cities including Shenzhen, Changsha, Shaoguan and Xi’an, accumulating over 5.6 million kilometers (3.4 million miles) by the end of April 2012. The first BYD electric buses will arrive in Uruguay before end of 2012 with targets to have over 500 buses running on roads by 2015.

"I am very pleased that Uruguay will have this environmental-friendly bus and new technology. I am looking forward to seeing electric vehicle technology in this country as we are very devoted to the protection of the environment," said President Mujica.

Juan Carlos Lopez Mena, president of Buquebus, Uruguay’s largest tourism company, said, "I am ready to invest heavily in a natural Uruguay – I will replace my whole tourism bus fleet with new energy buses."

Related Content

  • China-Sweden research centre for traffic safety opens
    December 24, 2012
    The China-Sweden Research Centre for Traffic Safety has been officially inaugurated in Beijing, attended by representatives of Volvo Cars and other research partners in the project, including Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Volvo Group, the Chinese Ministry of Transport's Research Institute of Highway and Tongji University in Shanghai. The governments of Sweden and China will contribute to fund the research centre.
  • Personal Rapid Transit, clear benefits for European cities
    July 26, 2012
    David Crawford watches the race to get the world's first PRT system up and running. To paraphrase the old joke about buses bunching, you seem to have to wait several decades for a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system, and then half a dozen come along together. Currently, in fact, there are well over that number of schemes for driverless electric passenger-carrying 'pod' networks at various stages of planning, design and implementation around the world. Locations range from a straight-off-the-drawing board ne
  • The sunshine subsidy for Colorado’s tollways
    January 10, 2014
    David Crawford reports on energy cost cutting on US highways. Just over a year after switch-on and with two global awards under its belt, the longest solar-powered toll road in the US is generating heightened interest in highway applications of alternative energy. The E-407, which loops around the eastern perimeter of the Denver metropolitan area in Colorado, won the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) President’s Overall Award for Excellence at its September 2013 Annual Meeting in
  • Home based real time travel information drives reduction in car use
    January 20, 2012
    David Crawford investigates a new approach to discouraging car use - the 'kitchen as travel centre'. ITS technology working together with UK planning legislation is driving an innovative 'kitchen as travel centre' approach to home design which is boosting public transport as an alternative to car use. The combination is already proving powerful enough to assuage environmentalist opposition to major urban developments. It is also being seen as a way of delivering wider social and community benefits inside an